Thinking – What is the mechanism behind it ?

Do you think that because a thought popped up in your mind it must be taken seriously? Do you feel compelled to contemplate or analyse every thought that goes through you mind.

Our voices are the product of our ability to speak. It would be virtually impossible to startle ourselves with our own function of speech. Similarly, we would not eat something and then wonder why we had a certain taste in our mouth – since we are always aware that we are the ones putting food in our mouth.

Thinking is however different because it precedes everything and goes on automatically, so we have innocently learnt to interpret our thoughts as if they represent reality. It is easy to believe that because we think something, the content of our thinking represents reality. When we realize thinking is an ability that we possess as humans and not reality, we can dismiss any negative thoughts that pop up in our minds.

Consider this example, let us pretend you accidentally spilled a glass of water at a restaurant, and you look up to see a man seated two tables away giving what you believe to be a disapproving look. You think to yourself what is the matter with this guy has he not spilled anything himself! Your interpretation of this incident makes you frustrated and annoyed. But the truth of the matter is that that person did not even see you spill the water. He was in his own world reacting to his own thought s, about an error he had made earlier that day. In this above example a cognitive distortion called mind reading is at play where we assume that we know for certain why someone else reacted to us in a certain manner.

In reality the outside circumstance itself is neutral, as only thought brings meaning to it. This is why the same circumstance can and does mean different things to different people. We need to understand the way we think about something and more importantly the way we relate to our thinking – will decide its effect on us. However, most of us do not understand that we are the thinkers of our own thoughts. At times we see it, but only selectively.

Let us consider another example, you have been assigned a new project at work- one day at work when you are feeling low you might have the thought- “I will never be able to finish this project”! Rather than saying to yourself oh there goes my thoughts again- doing this puts an end to the negativity then and there- you may continue instead on the same train of thought. What you need to learn is that such self-defeating thoughts are static, similar to the static on a television screen. We all know that there is no value in studying static on a tv screen and we should recognize there is especially no value in studying static in our thoughts.

Without a proper understanding of thought, the smallest amount of static in our minds can spiral and grow until it ruins our day or in some cases even a lifetime. Once we can see that our negative thoughts are no longer serving us- we can begin to see them as static or an interference and dismiss them. Each of us, in our own way, confuses our thinking with reality.

Why do our thoughts seem so real? Because we are the ones creating them. Most of us believe that if we are having a thought- then it must be worthy of serious attention and concern, but if someone else thinks something, we might see it as just a thought not requiring any attention. This is because it is so close to us, it is easy to forget that we are the ones doing the thinking. In this manner thought shapes our reality from the inside out.

Understanding the nature of thought allows us to live in a state of rest, of neutrality without losing our curiosity and wonder for life. Our thinking is not reality, but it is an attempt to interpret a given situation.

When a thought comes to mind recognize it for what it is- a passing thought. This does not mean we should not consider or act on the thought, but it does give us the option to choose.

The greatest misunderstanding of the mechanism of thinking is that the “goal” is to control what we think. This is far from the truth. The goal is to understand thought for what it is- an ability that shapes our reality from the inside out.

Advocates of Positive thinking suggest thinking positive thoughts as much as you can and avoid negative thinking altogether. While it is true that thinking positive thoughts make us feel better than thinking negative ones- positive thinking is an erroneous concept because it assumes that thought in and of itself has a reality which we need to be concerned with.

Be it positive or negative -  thought is still only a function.